What is this clip/bracket in my G5 Power Mac?

[Surrat]

Just for peoples reference, the genuine apple Quadro fx4500 always had the extension. The card is heavy, and shipping can bump it around a lot, possibly damaging the card, or the pci slot its in. The extension is a brace to keep the card in place securely.

Any 'short' fx4500 cards you find are pc versions, or a flashed pc version in a mac. Apple never shipped an fx4500 without the extension brace.

Also of note, is that Dell, and I think IBM included the brace on their fx4500's they used, but the brace was not the same shape as the one apple used.

 

[mikiotty]

As showed in another post above, there are also some PCI cards (and even NuBus cards for the older 68k Macs) that are extremely long and heavy. They can easily break the slot (seen it on 2 computers) if not properly supported.
PCs don't usually have support brackets, while Macs do from the beginning (they are there in a Quadra 700, for example). They are extremely important.

 

[MatthewLTL]

As showed in another post above, there are also some PCI cards (and even NuBus cards for the older 68k Macs) that are extremely long and heavy. They can easily break the slot (seen it on 2 computers) if not properly supported.
PCs don't usually have support brackets, while Macs do from the beginning (they are there in a Quadra 700, for example). They are extremely important.

Back in the day when PCs had ISA slots and either few or no PCI slots and usually the kind of IBM Clone AT PCs that had a Raiser card for the expansion slots had support for long cards, of course back then it wasnt uncommon to have ISA cards so long or bulky they where as long as the entire depth of the computer. I have a few ISA Graphics card and a ISA based Floppy/IDE controller card that were examples of such length.

 

[MagicBoy]

could you use Dual NIC for things like internet sharing? have the main net connection in one of the ports then have it share the other port to another computer or router?

Yes.

 

[bunnspecial]

As showed in another post above, there are also some PCI cards (and even NuBus cards for the older 68k Macs) that are extremely long and heavy. They can easily break the slot (seen it on 2 computers) if not properly supported.
PCs don't usually have support brackets, while Macs do from the beginning (they are there in a Quadra 700, for example). They are extremely important.

A while back, I sent someone on this forum some MDD parts in exchange for a pair of NuBus video card-a Radius Precision Pro X and a Pro XP.

One of them(I think the XP) was long enough to need the support bracket. I still have one of them put back for future use, but think I ended up using the shorter card because it was the better performing of the two.

The larger one is a heavy card, and I'd hate damage a NuBus slot(or the card) by moving the computer around without support. Those cards are also rare as hens' teeth.

 

[mikiotty]

A while back, I sent someone on this forum some MDD parts in exchange for a pair of NuBus video card-a Radius Precision Pro X and a Pro XP.

One of them(I think the XP) was long enough to need the support bracket. I still have one of them put back for future use, but think I ended up using the shorter card because it was the better performing of the two.

The larger one is a heavy card, and I'd hate damage a NuBus slot(or the card) by moving the computer around without support. Those cards are also rare as hens' teeth.

My dad has a lot of old Macs at work, and he used them to grab datas from laboratory equipment (he is a physicist and he does a lot of experiments since the 80's). I've seen some of those NuBus cards... just couldn't believe how heavy they were

 

[MatthewLTL]

I actually have some REALLY heavy ISA cards! the Controller card i have for the ISA bus is a beast but i have ISA sound cards that are so long they need the support as well. ISA Modems and ISA NICs are actually the smallest cards they have on the ISA bus (atleast that i have or seen)